I used to love watching poker on t.v. and am not sure when I lost interest. It might have been when they started showing percentage chances for winning any given hand and I realized there was way more math involved in poker than I thought. Clearly, deemed a sport because it was televised on ESPN (the definitive authority on whether something is a sport or not. Truth be told they lost all credibility when they introduced professional cherry spitting and pillow fighting). I started with watching and imagining myself at the table making big plays, no different from when I watch other sports. However, the math component quickly dismayed me from a real career in poker. I played poker in college but was an easy target but it was a fun evening nonetheless. I may have lost $15 but it was cheaper than a movie with soda, candy and popcorn. I kind of knew going in that I was probably not going to win anything and that was o.k. In fact, the betting made it even more exciting.
There were a few OTB branches in the city. Growing up in the suburbs we really didn’t have much horse racing, and therefore, there wasn’t much betting on the horses. However, I was well acquainted, as a child, with the concept. I had seen many images of the cigar smoking, degenerate Oscar Madison from the Odd Couple who could often be seen chewing on a cigar while he scoured the newspaper for the odds of certain horses doing better than others. “Phrases like Secretariat in the third to place” were bizarre phrases that I heard but didn’t understand. Now as an adult I can parse those words to understand the scheme or at least the rubric for betting on a horse in a specific race to come in either first, second or third, or win, place or show. OTB was for those people who weren’t at the track but wanted to bet anyway. Off Track Betting was to betting what a check cashing place was to banking. It was certainly legal and it attracted a certain clientele.
Of course there were always Casinos whose hubs were really Atlantic City and Las Vegas but expanded rapidly when betting became a source of significant profit. However, with betting came all sorts of other challenges and were reluctantly classified along with other addictive activities such as substance abuse. For some gambling was an uncontrollable urge while for others it was a fun pastime. For some an evening of entertainment for others is a compulsion and the question for our society is when betting will be seen in the same ways as other substances. Clearly, we have an inconsistent model for dealing with the varied addictive substances. Cigarette commercials are banned from t.v. but alcohol ads abound. Vaping is considered an entry drug targeting the young bringing all sorts of added restrictions, while marijuana has gained momentum in its move towards legalization.
In my opinion the latest innovation of online betting has exploded at a rate that has outpaced societies ability to properly regulate it. I especially like the click through at the landing page for betting sites that ask if you are 18 years or older. The invasive betting industry has become overwhelming and unavoidable while at the same time clearly filling a need or maybe creating a need. Was fantasy football or the super bowl pool the precursor to betting or has the betting industry simply found a better tool for doing something that has been around since at least the time of Aristotle.
Aristotle wrote in Ethics
BUT when we come to speak of the play itself And of actual gambling, which we will discuss below, I do not hold anyone blameless in this matter except those who play for money because of great grief of mind; and gambling is disgraceful because a man makes gain from his friend against that friend’s will. For the case stands thus: gain from those who are both willing and aware is best; next best, is gain from those who are aware and unwilling.
Aristotle gives another reason elsewhere when he says that gamblers, thieves, and robbers ply a sordid trade for they traffic in base gain; in fact they do everything for the sake of gain and thereby incur reproach. (4. Ethics, Chap.1, in fin.)
Simply put Aristotle believes gambling is akin to stealing because no one actually thinks they are going to lose, and therefore, they feel robbed. The gambler task is to convince you to do something that is not in your best interest and do it anyway. First one is free.
So here we are. Like Fantasy Football which often is accompanied by betting and trophies betting adds a level of excitement to simply watching from the sidelines. I like to sit on the couch and predict the next play or call out the infraction before the announcer to show my expertise. There is a fine between my armchair quarterbacking and betting on the result of a game. The industry of gambling has so invaded the game that we not only have intermissions sponsored by betting conglomerates but we have in game odds regularly flashed on the screen. Betting like dabbling in the stock market adds a certain excitement to watching.
These people literally have an investment in the outcome. All the while they are gambling with their future based on something that ought to be a pastime not a livelihood. I am concerned about the people with real betting problems and the disclaimer that runs along the screen is little solace. What has happened in the sports industry is not four 75 year old women sitting around the Mah Jong table playing for $5. The betting industry last year disclosed it had reached nearly $11 billion a 42% increase from the previous year. The problem is exacerbated by the distraction of the problem than interstate cyber activity. As Charles Fain Lehman wrote in a convincing article in The Atlantic entitled Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake
“The evidence is convincing: The betting industry is ruining lives.”
Many threw up their hands and still posthumously castigates Pete Rose for betting on baseball. I don’t think it is because betting on a sport in which you participate casts a dark shadow on the integrity of the game. There have long been conspiracy theories about the trustworthiness of the outcome of any given game. The issue I believe is the health of the spectator. If Madison Square Garden can cut fans off from drinking in the 3rd period of a hockey game to avoid drunk driving and post match fights, certainly more can be done to tamp down sports betting. According to The Mayo Clinic “The act of gambling has a powerful effect on the human mind. Wagering can create a compulsive dynamic, affecting your mental, emotional and physical health.” So the next time you are sitting with your buddies and one turns to you and says, “I’ll bet you the next pitch is a strike” your antenna should go up.
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